Harris and Lewis photography workshop November 2023
Client capturing the soft golden light across Dalbeg beach, Isle of Lewis
Is it just me or are the months just flying by at the moment? It feels like I’m not long home from another fantastic workshop on Harris and Lewis and we’re into December and Christmas is almost upon us already. The workshop started with one of the roughest sea crossings I’ve had in a long while. (I’ve not got good sea legs). Going by the sounds coming from the Mariners cafe kitchen there were a lot of breakages!!!
Once on the Island we headed straight for Dalmore and Dalbeg beaches to make the most of the late afternoon and early evening light before heading South to our accommodation on Harris. The weather forecast for the week ahead was not looking very promising so I figured we should make the most of it whilst it was on our side and that decision paid off nicely with some lovely soft golden and fleeting light (the blink and you’ll miss it type).
Blink and you’ll miss it
As mentioned we encountered numerous occasions throughout the week where the light was fleeting and was there one second and gone the next. If we weren’t ready for it then our chance was gone.
A lot of time was spent planning, checking forecasts and deciding where the best chances of light and breaks in the rain would be although on our first morning on the Island we were almost caught off guard.
The forecast didn’t look particularly promising for a sunrise so we were in no rush to get up and out after a long day travelling the previous day. A customary look out of the living room window turned our lazy start into an unexpected rush to get out of the house and into position to capture a quite incredible pre sunrise glow over the Minch and Isle of Skye.
For this I chose a high point on the road above Manish Township with stunning views across the Minch to Skye and of course the ever popular and now derelict old post office with its rusty orange roof. The colours were so strong I was almost tempted to dial back the saturation of the images made that particular morning. A perfect morning for exposure bracketing our images as the dynamic range and contrast in the scene was on the limits of a camera’s ability to capture in a single frame.. We later covered how we use those bracketed images to create the final (well exposed) image. There are a couple of ways to process our bracketed images although neither of the images below are bracketed for exposure and blended in post. They are single images using a Kase nd 1.2 reverse grad to balance the exposure as much as possible. I did however bracket this scene just to be sure I captured all of the data required if needed. Hopes were now high for some incredible light throughout the day but it was not to be.
Expect the unexpected!!!
The rest of the day was grey and flat and simply devoid of any interesting light whatsoever. In fact the grey, flat light continued into the 4th day along with strong winds and rain which challenged us somewhat into working on composition rather than capturing the beautiful light and coastline of Harris. We considered that when we are approaching a location that catches our eye we can start wide (capturing the whole scene) then begin to work our way through that scene and break it down into a variety of different images by picking out elements within the landscape we can use as points of interest, foreground interest, leading lines or simply as an intimate/ detail image in it’s own right.
We talked about how can we make it our own/ put our own stamp on it? What we can do to make our images stand out from the sea of other images from the same location? and other things to think about such as what do I want to include/ omit from my image?
The key thing on a workshop is to work a location as much as possible in the given time so you don’t leave feeling “I wish I had taken that image” and that is something that I wholeheartedly encourage. It’s not a whistle stop tour of the honeypot locations, it’s about helping my clients develop their own creative vision and style in a relaxed manner.
Battered by rain then treated to delightful but momentary golden light before running for cover from the next squall were part and parcel of this trip. A particular stand out from the Thursday between the squally showers was the image above. A pot of gold on the Golden road bathed in golden light.
Reading the weather and light and knowing the locations so well helped put us in the perfect position to capture this scene and it was worth the soaking we got running back to the car. After capturing this scene we headed for Hushinish beach as I knew it would be more sheltered from the wind and inevitable sea spray as well as being our best hope of a sunset if the weather was on our side.
Wet feet at Hushinish
While we were transferring filters from my lens to John’s to do some ICM (intentional camera movement) when a rogue wave decided it was going to catch us out for not paying attention. As we tried to run backwards up the beach trying our best to avoid a soaking from the incoming wave, I was trying to screw the filter holder on tight enough so it didn’t drop off but John still had hold of the camera. We did indeed avoid wet feet and successfully got the filters attached whilst entertaining the onlookers who undoubtedly had a good laugh at our expense and said it looked like we were dancing.
We worked on focus stacking and discussed when to use it, how to go about capturing the images required and how we go about processing and creating the final stacked image.
We covered ICM and how we can use the technique to soften and simplify a scene as well as covering a variety of ways we can capture images that give the look we are after.
We even had to get help for a sheep that managed to get itself stuck in the gate at Callanish II.
Below are a selection of images from one of my clients who said:
“Many thanks again for an enjoyable workshop. When I get home I like to be able to say that I have learnt something and come home with two-three images that I am very pleased with. I have now downloaded all my images, sorted them into locations and categories, made some Lightroom/Photoshop adjustments and I can safely say that my target of two-three images have been met.
I appreciated the advice you gave me regarding concentrating on the smaller things in the big landscape, a great idea and of course the advice regarding ICM. I think that it will be some time before I master the technique but I do like the quieter pastel colours that result.”
For more information regarding future workshops and tuition contact me here
